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"rolling in the mud"

What Age Is

Often people try to detatch themselves from their age because each age has alleged limitations in some way or another. It is true that age does not determine the amount of experience you’d had in your life, your ‘wisdom’ however that can be defined, or your intelligence. I think a lot people talk about what age isn’t about, so what is it about?

It’s less about the individual you are, and I think, more about how you fit into the larger society. An obvious statement being that people tend to spend more time, or be close people their own age. Quiten often, people that we know outside of our own age range are due to family or work connections. Of course I’m not saying that this is true for everyone, in every sense, but there are obvious trends. Clear differences between how 13 year olds like to spend their saturdays to 50 year olds.

Age places us in a bracket. It’s a way of making general assumptions about a group of people. Not just based on knowledge, but social role. When I go into bars and restaurants, most of the employees are young. When I went to University, most of the lecturers were older. I’m saying we should make judgements on people based on age, but notice that there are correlations. It’s these sorts of trends that dictate different kinds of advertising for different products. Just compare the kinds of holidays aimed at 18-30 year olds, to a resort for 50+.

So, no, age is not just a number. But it says something about you, your identity. But does not determine the individual. Just as you ethnicity, or beliefs do not define who you are, but are still all vital parts of who you are.